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architecture and design magazineTue, 31 Mar 2015 21:00:38 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1MAD reveals concept design for George Lucas' Chicago art museumhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/04/mad-studio-gang-george-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art-chicago-concept-design/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/04/mad-studio-gang-george-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art-chicago-concept-design/#commentsTue, 04 Nov 2014 10:32:55 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=583783News: Beijing firm MAD has unveiled the initial design for an art museum on Chicago's lakefront, which will house the collection of American film director George Lucas. MAD was selected alongside Chicago based Studio Gang by Star Wars creator George Lucas in July to design the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) and its grounds. Related […]

MAD has now unveiled the design for the building, which will present a history of the moving image using Lucas' existing collection and new additions. Studio Gang is creating the landscaping for the site as well as a new bridge to connect the museum to the nearby Northerly Island peninsula, which has not been made public yet.

The result is a curving white stone building with extremities that extend into the landscape, creating a platform above the main entrance. At the highest point, a flat top is covered by a "floating" disc, forming a sheltered viewing area that offers visitors vistas of Chicago and Lake Michigan.

Slices cut out of the facade provide space for slivers of glazing, while three levels of exhibition spaces form "infinite loops" inside, according to the designers. A large, open lobby area inside the entrance described as an "urban living room" is lit by a central skylight.

"The Lucas Museum design is both futuristic and timeless," said the team in a statement. "Its continuous, undulating organic surface blurs the line between structure and landscape. As the harbour rises up to the land, it merges with stone surfaces that reach up to the sky and ultimately crescendo into a 'floating' disc."

The museum will occupy a site near some of Chicago's existing institutions on a stretch of land that has become known as Museum Campus. Studio Gang's design will connect the new building to the park the firm created on Northerly Island.

"The green space, the public park is a great asset for Chicago and I want our building to blend into this environment, so you don't tell where the building is, where the park is," he said. "You will see the building as a landscape in front of all these modern skyscrapers."

"Our museum is not in the city, not in the downtown area. It is on the edge of the artificial and nature. So I was thinking, maybe our architecture can bring the nature force, like water waves."

"We are bringing together some of the top architects in the world to ensure that our museum experience begins long before a visitor ever enters the building," said George Lucas, in a statement published in July when the architects for the project were announced. "I am thrilled with the architectural team's vision for the building and the surrounding green space."

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/04/mad-studio-gang-george-lucas-museum-of-narrative-art-chicago-concept-design/feed/26Brutalist buildings: Prentice Women's Hospital, Chicago by Bertrand Goldberg & Associateshttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/02/prentice-womens-hospital-chicago-by-bertrand-goldberg-associates-brutalism/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/02/prentice-womens-hospital-chicago-by-bertrand-goldberg-associates-brutalism/#commentsThu, 02 Oct 2014 19:43:22 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=559120Brutalism: the design for the clover-shaped tower of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago was enabled by the pioneering application of one of the earliest three-dimensional modelling programmes. With its curving form, Goldberg made a clear break away from the grid formations favoured in Modernist architecture. Completed in 1975, Prentice Women's Hospital was formed of […]

Brutalism: the design for the clover-shaped tower of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago was enabled by the pioneering application of one of the earliest three-dimensional modelling programmes. With its curving form, Goldberg made a clear break away from the grid formations favoured in Modernist architecture.

Image courtesy of Chicago History Museum

Completed in 1975, Prentice Women's Hospital was formed of a striking corrugated concrete tower that cantilevered off a central core, joined to a five-storey glazed base by four mammoth interlocking arches. The project required the adaptation of specialist engineering technology reserved at that time for large-scale dam construction and aviation design.

The building housed the maternity unit of the Northwestern University campus in Chicago until its demolition in 2013 to make way for a new biomedical research centre designed by Perkins + Will.

Image courtesy of Geoff Goldberg, also main image

Goldberg began working on the design for Prentice in 1970 and considered several alternative schemes before settling on the formation of a five-storey glazed rectilinear platform topped by a nine-storey concrete quartrefoil tower.

The concrete shell cantilevered off a central core, distributing the building's weight through four interlocking arches that radiated out from its centre, onto the five-storey podium below.

Image courtesy of Sean Birmingham

"What I believe I have tried to translate into its many forms is the tendency of people to relate to each other," said Goldberg in an interview with Betty J Blum in 1992.

"I don't think the box or the rectilinear form of architecture, which has been so prevalent in the last portion of the 19th century and the early half of the 20th century, was invented by the architects," he explained.

"It was a denial of human difference. You might say it was also a denial of humanism, because to say humanism is to say that we're made up of lots and lots of different components and different objectives and different reactions."

Image courtesy of C. William Brubaker Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

Bertrand made use of a specialist engineering technology called finite element analysis to design the arches. The system allowed engineers to determine the strength of individual elements of a structure and was widely used in the aviation and dam-building industries. Prentice is regarded as one of the first architectural applications of the technology and Bertrand won an award for the design from the Engineering New Record in 1975.

In an open letter to Chicago's Mayor, Save Prentice – a coalition between the American Institute of Architects Chicago, DoCoMoMo, Landmarks Illinois, the National Trust, and Preservation Chicago formed when plans for the demolition of the building were unveiled – explained the importance of the technique.

Image courtesy of C. William Brubaker Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

"Prentice propelled advances in the fields of architecture and engineering that are still recognised today," said the letter. "Its cantilevered concrete shell broke with precedent and remains unique in the world. The result created column-free floors that today allow great flexibility for reuse options. Upon completion in 1975, critics and engineers worldwide celebrated Prentice as a breakthrough in structural engineering."

Like the "streets in the sky" of buildings by Le Corbusier and Alison and Peter Smithson, Bertrand's design was built around socialist principles, with a floor plan aimed at fostering a sense of community. At the topping out ceremony, the architect said the building had been "designed from the inside out".

Image courtesy of C. William Brubaker Collection, University of Illinois at Chicago Library

The innovative structure did away with the need for internal supports, creating a floor plan uninterrupted by columns. Each quadrant of the tower translated on the interior as a curved bay. The four bays on each floor opened onto a nurses' station that wrapped around the central core of the building.

The fluted exterior form, dictated by the interior layout, was clad in curved sections of ribbed concrete that ran in horizontal bands around the tower. Columns of oval windows punctuated this facade.

Prentice was one of eight American hospitals by Bertrand that take a similar shape – the precedent for Prentice was the Affiliated Hospitals in Boston, completed in 1971. But Prentice was the only hospital designed by the architect for his hometown of Chicago.

Original room interior. Image courtesy of Geoff Goldberg.

The building is often credited with being influential in the promotion of unified patient care, as it consolidated under one roof maternity obstetrics and gynaecology services that had previously been separated. The glazed five-storey podium also gave the building a dual purpose, housing the Northwestern Institute of Psychiatry.

According to the preservation campaigners that attempted to save the building, its design "changed the course of modern hospital design".

"Prentice's cloverleaf tower exemplifies the belief that patients should be grouped in communities around a nursing center, creating 'quiet villages' that improve proximity and sight lines between nurses and patients, welcome fathers into birthing rooms, and place mothers closer to their babies in the nursery."

Floor form

In 2010 the Northwestern University announced that Goldberg's building was to be replaced by a new biomedical research centre. The announcement sparked a campaign to have the building Landmarked – the US equivalent to the British Listing system.

The campaign was led by Save Prentice with the support of several prominent architects, including Renzo Piano. Studio Gang’s founder Jeanne Gang also supported the campaign and proposed a new glazed tower to accompany to sit atop Bertrand’s tower.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/10/02/prentice-womens-hospital-chicago-by-bertrand-goldberg-associates-brutalism/feed/5George Lucas hires MAD and Studio Gang for Chicago art museumhttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/29/george-lucas-mad-studio-gang-lucas-museum-narrative-art-chicago/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/07/29/george-lucas-mad-studio-gang-lucas-museum-narrative-art-chicago/#commentsTue, 29 Jul 2014 09:23:16 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=507302News: American film director George Lucas has appointed Beijing firm MAD and Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects to design his proposed art museum on Chicago's lakefront. Centred around the Star Wars creator's own collection, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) will present a history of moving images, "from illustration to cinema and digital mediums of the future", […]

News: American film director George Lucas has appointed Beijing firm MAD and Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects to design his proposed art museum on Chicago's lakefront.

Centred around the Star Wars creator's own collection, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) will present a history of moving images, "from illustration to cinema and digital mediums of the future", and will offer visitors an opportunity to "experience narrative art".

MAD, the firm led by Chinese architect Ma Yansong, was selected as the principal designer of the museum after impressing the judges with its innovative approach and philosophy of connecting urban spaces with natural landscapes.

Studio Gang will design the surrounding landscape and create a bridge connecting the museum to neighbouring peninsula Northerly Island – a former airport runway that the firm has spent four years transforming into a park.

"We are excited to build upon our current work and collaborate to create a seamless transition between the museum campus and Northerly Island," said studio principal Jeanne Gang. "In keeping with the Northerly Island ethos, our design goal will be to create a combined ecological and urban habitat."

The design team will unveil their proposal later this year, with a target to complete construction in four years' time.

"We are bringing together some of the top architects in the world to ensure that our museum experience begins long before a visitor ever enters the building," said Lucas.

"I am thrilled with the architectural team's vision for the building and the surrounding green space. I look forward to presenting our design to the Chicago community."

According to local reports, all four of the glass box viewing areas of The Ledge attraction on the 103rd floor of the 440 metre tall Willis Tower skyscraper were temporarily closed yesterday morning for a "routine inspection", following reports of cracking glass.

Tourist Alejandro Garibay told NBC Chicago that he had been in one of the boxes on the west side of the building with his brother and cousins when they heard cracking. Images showed a floor panel that appeared to have shattered.

A spokesperson for the building said that there was no danger, and that the cracked surface was a layer of protective coating over the structural glass designed to prevent the glass from damage and scratching.

"This coating does not affect the structural integrity of The Ledge in any way. Occasionally, the coating will crack, as it is designed to in order to protect the surface of the glass," said Brian Rehme, a spokesman from public relations firm FleishmanHillard.

By 4pm Chicago time, the attraction's operators had announced that the protective coating on box four of the ledge had been replaced. It is due to re-open later today.

Willis Tower, Chicago

The Ledge was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with structural glass designers Halcrow Yolles and opened in 2009 as an addition to the tower's existing 1974 sky deck.

Made from three layers of 12mm thick tempered glass laminated together, each panel used in the boxes weighs over 680 kilos. The boxes can retract into the building for cleaning and maintenance.

Glass viewing platforms have become increasingly popular as tourist attractions on tall building projects.

"It's no secret that observation decks as a business are very profitable, as opposed to leasing square footage in the building," Daniel Thomas, executive director of the World Federation of Great Towers and a former general manager of the Hancock Observatory told Crain's when plans for The Tilt were revealed.

Thomas estimated that the Observatory was making over $10 million a year from ticket sales, while the Willis Tower might be making as much as $25 million.

]]>http://www.dezeen.com/2014/05/30/glass-viewing-platform-on-chicagos-tallest-building-cracks-under-visitors-feet/feed/0Studio Gang's Chicago boathouse designed to echo the rhythms of rowinghttp://www.dezeen.com/2014/01/09/studio-gang-chicago-boathouse-designed-to-echo-rhythms-of-rowing/
http://www.dezeen.com/2014/01/09/studio-gang-chicago-boathouse-designed-to-echo-rhythms-of-rowing/#commentsThu, 09 Jan 2014 22:00:45 +0000http://admin.dezeen.com/?p=404566Chicago firm Studio Gang Architects has completed a boathouse on the northern bank of the Chicago River with a rhythmic roofline intended to capture the alternating motions of a rower's arm movements (+ slideshow). Located beside Clark Park in the north-west of the city, the WMS Boathouse provides a home for the Chicago Rowing Foundation. […]

Chicago firm Studio Gang Architects has completed a boathouse on the northern bank of the Chicago River with a rhythmic roofline intended to capture the alternating motions of a rower's arm movements (+ slideshow).

Located beside Clark Park in the north-west of the city, the WMS Boathouse provides a home for the Chicago Rowing Foundation. It is one of four boathouses proposed as part of a city-funded regeneration of the Chicago River, and the first of two designed by Studio Gang.

Structural roof trusses that alternate between M and upside-down V shapes give the building its jagged roof profile, which was conceptualised by tracing the time-lapse movements of rowing.

"The architecture is meant to visually capture the poetic rhythm and motion of rowing," said Studio Gang principal Jeanne Gang, "but by providing a publicly accessible riverfront, it also reveals the larger movement toward an ecological and recreational revival of the Chicago River."

The boathouse comprises two buildings positioned alongside one another. The first is a single-storey shed for storing rowing equipment, while the second is a two-storey structure containing offices, community facilities, a fitness suite and a rowing tank where teams can practice indoors.

The exterior of the building is clad with a mixture of slate tiles and zinc panels, which share the same silvery grey colouring.

Interior spaces are lined with timber, which also extends outside the building to wrap the inside of balconies and undersides of overhanging eaves.

South-facing clerestory windows extend up to the edge of the roof, bringing high levels of natural light through the building, but also helping to warm the interior in winter and allow natural ventilation during the summer.

Studio Gang's second boathouse will be located on the south side of the river and is set to complete in 2015.

Read on for more information from Studio Gang Architects:

Studio Gang Architects completes WMS Boathouse at Clark Park

First of the two new boathouses along Chicago River designed and constructed by SGA state-of-the-art, 22,620-square-foot facility now open to the public

Studio Gang Architects (SGA) is pleased to announce the completion of the WMS Boathouse at Clark Park along the north branch of the Chicago River. Designed and built by SGA, the state-of-the-art facility opened to the public on October 19, 2013. It is located at 3400 North Rockwell Avenue on the northwest side of the City of Chicago.

The Clark Park facility is one of four boathouses proposed by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as cornerstones of his riverfront revitalisation plan, anchoring the river's future development. Emanuel's initiative was spurred by the provision of nearly $1 million in grant funds by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to help clean up the river and drive job creation. Studio Gang was commissioned to realise two of the four boathouses, with the second facility to be located along the south branch of the Chicago River at 28th and Eleanor Streets. It is scheduled for completion in 2015.

The WMS Boathouse at Clark Park is currently home to the Chicago Rowing Foundation (CRF). In partnership with the Chicago Park District, the CRF offers a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities year-round, including learn-to-row sessions both in tanks and on the river, youth and masters team rowing, ergometer training, rowing-inspired yoga classes, and lessons tailored to individuals with disabilities.

As the City of Chicago works to transform the long-polluted and neglected Chicago River into its next recreational frontier, Studio Gang's boathouse at Clark Park helps catalyse necessary momentum. "The architecture is meant to visually capture the poetic rhythm and motion of rowing," said Jeanne Gang, Founder and Principal of Studio Gang Architects. "But by providing a publicly accessible riverfront, it also reveals the larger movement toward an ecological and recreational revival of the Chicago River."

The boathouse's design translates the time-lapse motion of rowing into an architectural roof form, providing visual interest while also offering spatial and environmental advantages that allow the boathouse to adapt to Chicago's distinctive seasonal changes. With structural truss shapes alternating between an inverted "V" and an "M", the roof achieves a rhythmic modulation that lets in southern light through the building's upper clerestory. The clerestory glazing warms the floor slab of the structure in winter and ventilates in summer to minimise energy use throughout the year.

The 22,620-square-foot complex consists of a two-story mechanically heated and cooled training centre, one-story boat storage facility, and a floating launch dock. The main building houses row tanks, ergometer machines, communal space, and an office for the Chicago Park District. Boat storage accommodates kayak and canoe vendors and includes office space, as well as clear span storage for rowing shells and support equipment.

The total building cost is $8.8 million, with $3.2 million in private funding—including $2 million from WMS, $1 million from North Park University, and $200,000 from the Chicago Rowing Foundation—and $1 million matched by Alderman Ameya Pawar (47th ward) with TIF funds.